Watch one-film-old Sunny Deol talk about up-and-coming actor Sridevi in 1984 interview

Actor Sunny Deol, hot off the success of his debut film Betaab, had spoken about working with Sridevi and Anil Kapoor in 1984. But neither of them was an established face in the industry, which is what can be immediately gathered by Sunny’s words.

In an interview conducted on the sets of his film Joshilaay, Sunny Deol was asked how he was handling his sudden fame, and what other projects he was working on. He described Joshilaay as an ‘action-packed’ film, made in the style of Westerns, just like his father Dharmendra’s iconic film Sholay.

Asked who his co-stars in the film were, Sunny said, “Ladki toh Sridevi hai (The female lead is Sridevi), aur ek aur actor bhi hai, Anil Kapoor (and there’s another actor, Anil Kapoor).” The interviewer then asked Sunny about Sridevi, about whom she said, “South actress hain, bahut popular hogayi hain yahan pe aajkal (She’s a south actor, she’s making a name for herself here, isn’t she)?”

The interview was conducted just one year after Sridevi made a splash in Bollywood with films such as Himmatwala, Sadma, and four other releases in the same year. She had already appeared in dozens of films in the South Indian film industries.

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Sunny agreed with the interviewer. He said, “Haan unki yahan aajkal Jeetu ke saath kaafi picturein chal rahi hain (Yes, she’s had a few hits here with Jeetendra).” Sunny was last seen on screen in 2019’s Blank. He directed his son, Karan Deol, in Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas. Sridevi died in 2018 due to accidental drowning, while she was attending a family wedding in Dubai. Her daughter, Janhvi Kapoor, made her film debut just a few months after her death.